The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-09-14
The Sheepfold.

One way remains, says the Cultipator,
by which sheep may be made profitable
for the restoration of fertility. This is
to buy in the fall and fatten during the
winter. No kind of stock makes more
or richer manure in proportion to its
feed. 1t requires experience with Sheep
and good judgment added, to buy them
ludlciously, but when thus bought, a
mock OF sheep in the fall can hardly fail
to prove profitable for feeding.
The increased growth of wool from
fattening sheep goes a good way toward
paying for their feed. Clover hay is best
for them, and with this and a very little
grain sheep can be got in excellent con-
dition in sixty to ninety days, and during
this time flock of one hundred will
work down large straw stack into
manure, using most of it as bedding.
1t is in the barnyard, treading down
straw and compacting it with evenly
distributed manure, rather than the pas
ture, that the foot of the sheep is golden.
Granted hogs will make scarcely richer
manure; but they do not relish clover
hay nor tread down into manure the
straw they use as bedding.
Wintering a flock of ewes so as to grow
ssefs for market is profitable if
rightly managers -i4Ab>reJuires extra
warm quarters and plenty of roots or
other succulent feed. 1t also needs
greater skill and judgment than is re-
quircd for fattening sheep. Merely in
feeding less skill is demanded, for the
breeding eve has an appetite not easily
cloyed, and its feed is more laxative and
less nutritious than that usually given to
fattening animals.
But the chief point in growing carly
lambs for market is to keep up as large
supply of milk as can be had from the
dam, and then supplementing this just
as soon as lambs become old enough to
eat with the food that will bring them
into the best condition. Spring lamb is
food for the leplcure, and whoever pro
vldes it requires skill proportioned to the
difficulty of its production.
Wool is the farm product which brings
most money in proportion to what it
takes from the farm and with least labor
to the producer. But the life of a
shepherd, though not laborous, is exact
ing, especially at lambing time. If any
one goes into the business of keeping
ShNNp Win bub nOllOn IlaL III is an
easy way of gettinga living he makes
serious mistake. Possibly in rough,
new countries, on land that costs little or
nothing, flock of sheep will produce
something with little care on the part of
their owner, but it is precarious business
even there.
As part of civilized farming on high
priced land the sheep keeper must expect
TO give fully as much care to his stock,
and even more, than any other farm
stock would require. If through his
neglect the stock becomes n failure his
losses will be even greater than they
would be in some other branch of farm
ing. The man who thinks chiefly how
he can have an easy time is not fit for any
kind of farming, least Of all for keeping
sheep In fact, there is no kind OF
business that such one can begin with
any prospect of success. The idea that
poorly kept sheep make either the land
OF their owner owner rich has been too
long delusion for those inexperienced
in the business